Luer connectors are well-known and used in a wide variety of medical sets and the like, in which a tapered sleeve or nozzle fits into a tapered socket to provide a tight connection. Typically, the luer connector complies with ISO/ANSI specifications.
Often, a "luer-lock" connector is used, in which the conventional luer connection is reinforced with an outer sleeve carried on one of the connectors, typically the male connector, which sleeve engages outwardly extending projections of the female luer connector in threaded, interlocking relation, to provide assurance that the luer connection does not accidentally separate.
Such luer connectors and luer lock connectors come in a wide variety of designs, and are used as connectors for parenteral solution sets, blood sets for dialysis and other medical procedures, connectors for joining hypodermic needles and needle hubs, and the like.
Female luer connectors in the prior art originally had separate closure caps. Such a design is of course relatively costly to mold and assemble, there being two separate parts, and often the caps would be lost or would fall on the floor.
Then, as a next step in the prior art, female luer connectors were molded with integral caps attached by a hinge. However, these connectors were not suitable for mating with male luer lock connectors, because the outside threaded skirt of the typical male luer lock connector would often be impeded by the hinge.
As another developmental step, luer connectors were provided in which the cap is attached by an umbilical cord-like strap which connects to the female connector at a position that is spaced from the open end thereof. Problems with the system included the fact that when the connector is uncapped, the cap is free to move in any direction that its flexible cord permits. Thus, due to the flexibility of such an umbilical cord-like strap, this system is ill suited for automated capping, and thus requires manual labor to initially place the cap on the end of the connector after molding. Also, when the user has removed the cap and desires to recap it, the recapping is not easily done with a single finger of the same hand holding the connector, but rather more often requires closer attention and grasping of the cap with the thumb and forefinger of the other hand to properly position the cap for recapping on the luer.
By this present invention, a luer with a hinged cap is provided in which, in preferred embodiments, the hinged cap may be removed from the luer with the action of a single finger of the same hand holding the luer connector, and it may be reapplied in a reliable, repetitive manner with a single finger as well.
The luer connector of this invention may be integrally molded in a single shot with its cap, but, nevertheless, the cap may be placed on the end of the luer connector in automated manner, for reduction of initial manufacturing costs. Also, the cap is manually removed, with ease in preferred embodiments with the action of single finger, and the cap may also be replaced with the action of a single finger in the most preferred embodiments. Additionally, a space is provided so that a male luer lock connector may connect with the female luer connector of this invention, with the locking sleeve of the typical luer lock connector engaging in unimpeded manner with the exterior of the female luer connector.